A Laramie man was sentenced to a lengthy term of probation Thursday in District Court after pleading guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a child.

Robert Pruitt, 30, was sentence to six years of supervised probation in lieu of a 5-10 year suspended prison sentence.  The state dismissed two other charges of sexual exploitation of a child and recommended probation in exchange for the guilty plea.

Judge Jeffrey Donnell noted that Pruitt has serious mental health issues.

“First and foremost, your days with the internet are over,” said Donnell.

He ordered Pruitt to undergo a full psychosexual evaluation, continue his mental health counseling, and complete an outpatient treatment program as well as a criminal thinking class.

“If we have any more problems like this, you’d better understand you’re going to be in the state penitentiary,” said Donnell.

Court documents say that Laramie police began to investigate in Nov. 2014 after being contacted by a woman who reported that her 13-year-old son had gotten in trouble at school about two weeks prior for drawing inappropriate pictures.

That child said in a police interview that his grandmother’s ex-boyfriend, Pruitt, would watch pornographic videos on his laptop in the presence of her grandchildren while supervising them at her residence in the summer of 2014.

One of the grandchildren got in trouble at school in early November for drawing inappropriate pictures.  The child said in a police interview that Pruitt would watch pornographic videos in front of him while he was at his grandmother’s house.  The child also said that his grandmother knew about it and had told him not to pay attention.

The child said it was hard to ignore because Pruitt would sit very close while watching the videos on the grandmother’s laptop.

According to the affidavit, police seized several electronic devices including laptops during a Dec. 17 search of the grandmother’s house.  The Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation located at least three separate movies that contained children engaged in explicit sexual conduct on the items seized.  Pruitt was arrested on March 27, 2015.

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